Movies: Dreaming of a more complete 'Dreamcatcher'

CHRISTY LEMIREAP Entertainment Writer

Published Friday, March 21, 2003

"Dreamcatcher" is unspeakably bad -- and shockingly so -- considering that it's an adaptation of a Stephen King novel, from the director of "The Big Chill" (Lawrence Kasdan) and the writer of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (William Goldman).

These are people who have Oscars and Oscar nominations, people who have worked in this business long enough that there's no plausible explanation for a film that is so woefully unfocused and misguided.

The story of four longtime friends in rural Maine who communicate telepathically is all over the place. It starts out with glimmers of "Stand By Me" and ends up as a rehash of "Alien." In between, it can't decide whether it's an inspirational, supernatural drama or a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi thriller, and never fully succeeds at becoming either.

When they call each other on the phone, they know who's on the other end before picking it up, and they sense ahead of time when another member of their group is in potential danger. It's a gift that was transferred to them as children from a mentally retarded friend named Duddits (played as an adult by Donnie Wahlberg), whom they rescued from a bully attack.

This alone could have been a spooky, intriguing premise for a movie, even though we've traveled this psychic territory in King adaptations before.

But then the aliens come -- or rather, the people carrying alien spawns.

While the four buddies are on vacation in the woods, a stranger stumbles upon their cabin with red splotches on his face and incessant gastrointestinal rumblings -- the result of eating wild berries, he believes.

His condition deteriorates rapidly, and in no time an otherworldly creature has burst from his backside. But that's just the beginning -- the serpent, and others like it, are the minions of aliens who have come to Earth to contaminate the water system.

Soon Col. Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman) is soaring above the landscape in a helicopter with his second-in-command (Tom Sizemore), trying to rid the woods of the creatures and the red, bubbling fungus they create -- which is known as the "Ripley," Curtis explains, named for Sigourney Weaver's character in the "Alien" movies.

And right then and there, we're yanked from the film and plunked down in reality. This and other pop culture references remind us that this is a movie that knows it's a movie, which shatters any early supernatural vibe.

By this point, though, the ESP has grown conspicuously selective among the four friends. One of the aliens takes over Jonesy's body and forces him to speak in a broad British accent, and and from then on the dark humor is awkward, and everything seems haphazard.